6/15/2023 0 Comments The maltese falconAt 11 minutes in the scene where the two detectives visit Spade to ask questions we see the wall but without the square. But the ‘painting on the wall’ theory fails because in other shots the square is not visible. This made sense since just to the (screen) left of the square we see a mantelpiece with many photos resting on it (maybe the detective diploma we see on his office wall?). The student pointed out that Sam Spade, being a bachelor, probably does not wash his walls ever, and this could account for the imprint on the wall where a painting or photo once hung. One student suggested the square was the shaded imprint of a photo or painting that once hung there but was removed. I had mentioned the square in passing to my class as I analyzed the scene in question where I first noticed the sqaure, when Sam and all the others are gathered in his apartment trying to negotiate the handing over of the falcon, which is in Spade’s possession (approximately 70 plus minutes in). But the last time I watched The Maltese Falcon at some point my eyes began to wander around the frame, looking behind an actor, looking at the bottom of the frame, until something unusual caught my attention: an odd square pattern on one of the back walls of Sam Spade’s apartment. 1941 was a key year for Humphrey Bogart’s career, as they featured him in two roles which would identify him forever and stand the test of time as two of his finest performances, Samuel Spade in The Maltese Falcon and the criminal Roy Earle in High Sierra. Mary Astor’s performance as the duplicitous, compulsive liar with the potential to kill set the model for later femme fatales. His performance runs the gamut from comic relief (especially his spats with Mary Astor’s Brigid O’Shaugnessy) to covert threat. Lorre’s mannered performance is seen as Hollywood code for “gay”: he is always impeccably dressed, carries a cane for aesthetic purposes, goes to the theatre (we see a theatre ticket clearly as Spade goes through his wallet) and owns a perfume scented handkerchief. Moto series, but he struck gold as the dandyish Joel Cairo. Austria-Hungarian actor Peter Lorre was already a veteran of German, England and American film, most notably in M, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), Mad Love and the Mr. Greenstreet’s large frame offers a deft contrast to his delicate way with words and near effeminate body moves. Not only was this director Huston’s first film, but British actor Sydney Greenstreet’s first film, playing the brains of the motley group of treasure hunters, Kasper Gutman. Aside from the tremendous script, which Huston claims was in large part taken from the Dashiell Hammett novel from 1930, and the dramatically effective use of the wide angle lens and tight framing, one thing that always keeps my interest is the stand-out cast and performances. I have this experience every time I re-watch John Huston’s fantastic debut film, The Maltese Falcon (1941), which is also the first proper film noir. Where do one’s eyes wander when you watch a film you’ve seen many times and know the story inside out? In such cases, especially if it is a conventional narrative, my viewing interest in the film is not plot or story but something that I can isolate and enjoy without the prior knowledge of the plot. I have had a similar experience with certain classic or canonical films that I happen to teach regularly and hence have watched many, many times. A large part of the methodology used by these five cinephiles can be labeled as a unique form of film criticism, Immersion Criticism, where the critic steeps him or herself deeply in the text by watching it many times to the point where one’s perception on the object changes. In last month’s issue I wrote an essay on Rodney Ascher’s Room 237 and how it channels the obsessions over Kubrick’s The Shining that five film critics have into a provocative and new form of film criticism. The Maltese Falcon and the Case of the Mystery Square and other things lurking in the backgroundīy Donato Totaro Volume 19, Issue 7 / July 2015 8 minutes (1826 words)
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